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Bowerbankia is a recent ctenostome. The image below shows a single zooid with feeding apparatus (lophophore) extended. The lophophore terminates in a fan-like array of tentacles, which interact with water currents to draw-in particulate food matter.
The image below shows how each Bowerbankia zooid fits into a colony. Communication between colonies is achieved by passing information through the pores and along the furniculus. Since the growth effort of the bryozoan skeleton is a colonial effort, colonies of bryozoans become highly integrated rather than just remaining as aggregates of indivduals.
Images redrawn from Clarkson (1998)
Author: Luke Mander
Last updated: 20.11.05
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